Do You Know Where You Live?
Understanding Santa Clara and its rich history is important if you want to be a force for good.
The City of Santa Clara was incorporated in 1852, but the roots of our community go back to indigenous tribes living in this fertile valley, especially along the Guadalupe River. Franciscan monks chose the site for one of their missions to further their desire to spread Catholicism. The mission system stalled, and the Jesuit Priests turned the mission site into the first institution of higher learning in California, Santa Clara University.
After the town’s establishment, growth was steady with cattle and leather as some of its first products. A tannery was established in1846. Eberhard Tannery as it was known in 1866 became a standard of excellence. Its reputation was held in such high regard worldwide, that even The British Royal Family ordered leather products from this tannery.
Santa Clara Valley has several names, one being, ”The Valley of Hearts Delights”. With the construction of the Santa Clara Railroad Station in 1863, our farmers had the opportunity to ship their produce (both fresh and canned) to other communities and states. Our Railroad station is the oldest operating station this side of the Mississippi River.
Because the farmlands were fertile and the opportunity to sell produce to other communities increased the economy, many immigrants came to Santa Clara Valley.
The technology industry began in the 1950’s. Don Hoefler coined the name "Silicon Valley" for Santa Clara Valley’s in the ‘70's. Engineers with ties to Stanford began working with transistors and then semiconductors. They were used to build integrated circuits led by Robert Noyce. He founded a company in Santa Clara called Intel. The high-tech boom started here. This innovation has had a global impact which made computers, smart phones and the internet possible.
Today Santa Clara is still the “Center of What’s Possible”, being a leader in artificial intelligence, Nvidia's headquarters is located here. The largest cluster of data centers on the West Coast is located in Santa Clara because of our local clean power company, Silicon Valley Power; that just celebrated its centennial year.
You should be so proud of the heritage of this amazing city. Few cities can boast of decades of amazing history.
Once a year private homeowners who have lovingly restored and maintained homes built in the late 1800’s and early 1900's are decorated for the holiday season and open for tours by the public. These tours are run by volunteers and the proceeds go to help maintain city owned historic properties. Four homes and the firehouse museum are on the tour plus the oldest structure still standing in town, The Adobe.
Do not miss this annual event! Go to sc-hometour.com for tickets. Evening of Dec. 5 and afternoon of Dec. 6 only.
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